Telkom still offers network projects to private firms
Telkom still offers network projects to private firms
JAKARTA (JP): Private firms still have the opportunity to establish and operate telecommunications networks under a joint operation arrangement with PT Telkom, an official said.
"Even though the state-owned domestic telecommunications provider PT Telkom has signed contracts with five private firms to install and operate some two million lines for a 15-year period, other businesses are still available," Director General of Post and Telecommunications Djakaria Purawidjaja told reporters yesterday.
He said after delivering a presentation at a three-day seminar on infrastructure that based on government regulation No. 8/1993, private firms are able to participate in the telecommunications business under three different arrangements -- the joint operation arrangement, join venture scheme and management contract.
Djakaria said under the joint operation arrangement, potential small-scale telecommunications projects include the installation of fixed-telephone lines at housing or commercial estates.
"Telkom, for example, can offer such contracts to private firms for the installation of telephone networks at the Sudirman Central Business District in South Jakarta and the Kemayoran business area in Central Jakarta," he said, adding that companies can file proposals for such business.
Telkom signed last month joint operation contracts with five foreign joint ventures, which will install some two million telephone lines and operate them along with existing lines. The projects, effective as of January 1996, are expected to bring a total revenue of Rp 15.25 trillion (approximately US$6.7 billion) for Telkom within the next 15 years.
Among the joint ventures are PT Pramindo Ikat Nusantara (which will install 516,487 lines in Sumatra), PT Aria West International (500,000 lines in West Java), PT Mitra Global Telekomunikasi Indonesia (400,000 lines in Central Java), PT Daya Mitra Malindo (237,000 lines in Kalimantan) and PT Bukaka Sing Tel (403,000 lines in the country's eastern provinces comprising of Sulawesi, Maluku, Irian Jaya and Nusa Tenggara).
The five projects are part of the government's program to install five million telephone lines within the current Sixth Five-Year Development Plan period which will end in March, 1999. Three million of the total will be installed in the greater Jakarta area and East Java by Telkom.
Local contractors
In a related development, an executive said yesterday that domestic telecommunications contractors are ready to participate in the establishment of the two million telephone lines already awarded to the joint ventures.
"In West Java, eight local companies have established a consortium and proposed cooperation with Aria West International," chief of the investment department of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's West Java chapter, Nina Mariana, said.
She said that the consortium had also held a presentation for Aria West.
Aria West has not made any response but said that meetings should be arranged to discuss the proposal, she said.
Many domestic contractors are worried that the five joint ventures will look for giant sub-contractors for their projects and will apparently prefer to assign foreign companies, she said. (icn)